Remembering "Miss Ruby"

Published: Sunday, April 7, 2013 at 09:35 PM.

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Burlington Police officers who regularly patrol Tucker Street Apartments joined community members Sunday at dusk to remember “Miss Ruby,” at her garden, which was planted last year as a memorial to the community leader.

Ruby Fearrington had lived at the apartment complex for nearly two decades and maintained a garden there for many of those years, encouraging her neighbors to take what vegetables they needed and keeping an eye on the neighborhood.

In her later years, Miss Ruby befriended the Community Oriented Policing unit that began patrolling the Tucker Street Apartments area, and would exchange gardening tips with officer DeMario Chavis.

When Miss Ruby’s health declined and she passed away April 5, 2012, the COP unit turned a patch of dirt against one of the apartment buildings into a two-tiered vegetable and flower garden. Over the past year, the apartment residents and officers have teamed to trim back the plants, weed and water the garden.

And Sunday, they stood vigil over the flowers and collard greens, remembering Miss Ruby.

Gene “Bones” Boswell, of Lost Souls Ministry, said a few words at the garden Sunday night, while Miss Ruby’s friends and family stood by, candles lit.

Burlington Police officers who regularly patrol Tucker Street Apartments joined community members Sunday at dusk to remember “Miss Ruby,” at her garden, which was planted last year as a memorial to the community leader.

Ruby Fearrington had lived at the apartment complex for nearly two decades and maintained a garden there for many of those years, encouraging her neighbors to take what vegetables they needed and keeping an eye on the neighborhood.

In her later years, Miss Ruby befriended the Community Oriented Policing unit that began patrolling the Tucker Street Apartments area, and would exchange gardening tips with officer DeMario Chavis.

When Miss Ruby’s health declined and she passed away April 5, 2012, the COP unit turned a patch of dirt against one of the apartment buildings into a two-tiered vegetable and flower garden. Over the past year, the apartment residents and officers have teamed to trim back the plants, weed and water the garden.

And Sunday, they stood vigil over the flowers and collard greens, remembering Miss Ruby.

Gene “Bones” Boswell, of Lost Souls Ministry, said a few words at the garden Sunday night, while Miss Ruby’s friends and family stood by, candles lit.

“She cared about her surroundings. She cared about her community,” Boswell said.

Jennings and Shawnquetta Davis, a community leader at the apartments, recalled Miss Ruby’s fondness for growing vegetables, which the neighbors could pick. The same rule applies to the garden now, which Davis said everyone helps maintain.

“Everybody takes part,” she said. “If you live here, you can get some (vegetables).”

The collard greens and other vegetables have returned in full force, as have annual flowers that weren’t expected to grow back, said Chavis. He said the heat the garden has received from the adjacent apartment kept the ground warm enough to coax the petunias and other flowers back out this spring.

And the vegetables can’t be picked fast enough.

“Last year, we had so many vegetables it was crowded,” said Chavis. That’s why this year, he and Pfc. Justin Wood are going to build a second garden against another nearby apartment building.

“The (community) leaders, they want to get the kids involved a lot, in that one,” said Wood. He added the neighborhood kids have already helped the officers with weeding, and the residents have picked and trimmed back the collard greens twice.

“I think she’d be real pleased that we’re keeping it up, and her memory lives on,” said Davis.